# Michael Marcus (trader)

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Published: 2026-10-29T22:01:38.665Z

Updated: 2026-10-29T22:01:38.665Z

Michael Phillips Marcus was a commodities trader who, in less than 20 years, is reputed to have turned his initial $30,000 into $80 million.

## Key facts

## Overview

Michael Phillips Marcus was a commodities trader who, in less than 20 years, is reputed to have turned his initial $30,000 into $80 million.

## Career

Marcus began his trading career in 1972 when he bought plywood futures with his life savings of $7000. In the summer of 1972 President Richard Nixon froze prices of some commodities, but the futures contracts rallied sharply, increasing Marcus' stake from $7000 into $12,000. In 1973 he turned $24,000 into $64,000.  Marcus learned money management laws from Ed Seykota, whom he met while working as an analyst. Marcus eventually became an EVP at Commodities Corporation. Marcus has recently invested in small-company stock through his holding company Canmarc Trading Co and later made private-placement investments in small OTC Bulletin Board listed companies like Prospector Consolidated Resources and Encore Clean Energy Inc and Pink Sheets Touchstone Resources. ViRexx Medical Corp, a company focused on immunotherapy treatments for certain cancers, chronic hepatitis B and C, and embolotherapy treatments for tumors, announced Marcus's election to its Board of Directors at its Annual General Meeting held May 25, 2006. Marcus was briefly featured by Thomas A Bass, in the book The Predictors: How a Band of Maverick Physicists Used Chaos Theory to Trade Their Way to a Fortune on Wall Street. Additionally, Marcus was interviewed by Jack Schwager in the book Market Wizards.  Marcus was described as a chartist who "keeps an eye on market penetration and resistance."

## Education and personal life

Raised in Providence, Rhode Island to a Jewish household, Marcus' father was a judge and his mother was a teacher.  He graduated in 1969 Phi Beta Kappa from Johns Hopkins and studied Psychology at Clark University. At one time he was a devout follower of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

## Children

Michael had two children, Aubrey (birth name Christopher), and Will.

## Death

Michael Marcus died on March 25, 2023, in Austin, Texas. After his death, his son Aubrey talked about his life in an episode of his podcast.

## Further reading

Schwager, Jack D. (1993). Market Wizards: Interviews with Top Traders. 48 pages: Collins; Reissue edition. ISBN 0-88730-610-1.\{\{cite book\}\}:  CS1 maint: location (link) "SEC profile". 2006-08-06. Retrieved 2006-08-06.

## Sources

- Michael Marcus (trader) · Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/?curid=6273322

Source: Wikipedia contributors — https://en.wikipedia.org/?curid=6273322&oldid=1328468308

Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Adaptation notice: Reformatted for XPay; the source may be abridged, restructured or translated. Consult the cited revision for the original.